Legacy of the Leaf
by ImmortalSephiroth
Summary: AU Naruto must grow up knowing he is the son of a traitor. How will he attain his dream of becoming the Hokage when the village is against him? Round Robin, updates every two weeks.
1. Introduction

Hey Fellow FanFic writers

I'm proposing a Round Robin here. This is where one author will write the first chapter and another author the second, and so on. The pairing of this story will Naruto/Hinata/Ino, as in a bisexual threesome. This will be M-rated. If you want, write scenes later in the story of Fem!Naruto/Hinata/Ino.

There are massive changes to the backstory here.

As in canon, the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju, established the Hidden Leaf Village. He and his son-in-law, Tobirama Senju (married to Hashirama's daughter and originally from the clan who would establish the Hidden Mist Village) would train Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura.

Tobirama was the first sensei to Jiraiya, Tsunade (his daughter) and Orochimaru, from Genin to Chuunin level. However, shortly before the Hashirama-Madara battle, he is blinded in an ambush. He retires from active service, feeling weak.

Hashirama battles Madara, who is aided by the Nine Tailed Fox, and wins. I'll leave it up to you guys what happens to the Fox. However, Hashirama is wounded in the battle, and dies a few weeks later. This leaves only Hiruzen Sarutobi able to succeed him: no-one trusts Danzo and Tobirama feels that being blind, he would be useless. Thus, Sarutobi is called the Niidaime Hokage.

Sarutobi then takes Tobirama's students and trains them to Jonin level. It is he who teaches them the Summoning Jutsu.

Sometime later, Orochimaru becomes a Jonin-sensei. His first three students are Kushina Uzumaki, along with Hiashi & Hizashi Hyuuga. Years later, he takes on, seperately, Anko Mitarashi and Itachi Uchiha.

Tsunade as usual trains Shizune.

Jiraiya trains Minato Namikaze, but in this story doesn't train the Ame Orphans. Instead, the trio are trained by a master, maybe Hanzo of the Salamander, or maybe even Danzo, who desires the Rinnegan.

Minato as usual trains Rin, Obito Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake. Same thing happens as in Kakashi Gaiden – Obito gives Kakashi his Sharingan. However, here, Rin leaves active shinobi service, to complete her medical training under Tsunade (just medical, no ninja training). Kakashi becomes an ANBU Captain, the best in the service.

About a year after the disbanding of Team Minato, Sarutobi announces his retirement. He would choose Minato, but decides against it, with Minato being young and inexperienced compared to Orochimaru. Orochimaru becomes the Sandaime Hokage.

Orochimaru then successfully goads Jiraiya and Minato into attacking him. He uses this as proof that they tried to assassinate him. He declares them traitors, and the two leave the village. Minato takes Kakashi with him: Kushina leaves on her own shortly after, and manages to find Minato.

After a while, the four ninja decide on what to do. Jiraiya says he will concentrate on finding a way to assassinate Orochimaru. The other three go elsewhere. After a few months traveling, they are almost killed by a wild man, the Jinchuuriki of the One Tail. They manage to flee, leaving the host to be captured by the Sand Village.

Minato then decides he will seek a way of ending the threat of the Tailed Beasts. He founds Akatsuki. Over the next five years, he forces Kisame, Sasori, Pain, Konan and other S-class ninja to join. Jiraiya is not considered a member, merely an ally. Kushina and Kakashi are members. Eventually, Kakashi becomes the second strongest Akatsuki member there is, having used his Sharingan to learn the techniques of the other members.

Minato uses the other members to discover ways of sealing the Tailed Beasts. The other members (sans Kushina and Kakashi) believe he wants the Beasts to gain power and wealth, so go along with his plan.

Eventually, Madara Uchiha infiltrates this group. His plan involved becoming the Sandaime Mizukage under a false identity, then orchestrating his own downfall in a coup de'tat. Minato falls for this trick, doesn't realise who he actually is.

Five years after Orochimaru became Hokage, Madara unleashed the Fox on the Village. Minato took his newborn son with him to the Village (Kushina died in childbirth), and sealed the Fox.

From there on, go nuts. That's the backstory. Naruto's Genin team-mates must be Hinata Hyuuga and Sasuke Uchiha. Their sensei must be Itachi. From there on in, write the story. All Naruto knows is that his parents were a traitor (only Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Sarutobi know about the Fox).

Private message me with your chapters, or send them to exodiathecoolone (at) hotmail (dot) com.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise. This fanfiction is written under Fair Use clauses of any applicable copyright laws.

Normally, there would be birds singing amidst the trees in this lush green forest, but not now. Death had come here, a death taller than the trees, spitting red fire and burning pain.

Craters littered the ground, not round, but strangely shaped.

A hawk circled the field, noticing many details that could not be noticed from the ground. Each of the craters was shaped like a paw-print. That was understandable, as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had literally burned his footsteps into the earth. Bodies were scattered everywhere.

He ended the jutsu, and returned to his body. He opened his eyes, and shook his head, blond hair waving about. He rubbed his eyes, feeling tired as he had never felt before. No mission, not even the A- or S-rank missions he performed since attaining the rank of Jonin four years before, had worn him down so completely.

Grief threatened to overwhelm him. He still couldn't believe it. His father, Inoishi, had been killed by that bastard fox. The Yamanaka Clan Head had been part of a delay force, one required to sacrifice their lives to stop the creature while Hokage-sama found some way to kill it. The fox had swatted one of its nine tails and the elderly shinobi had been blown back almost to the village walls.

There Inoichi had held his father in his arms. Multiple broken bones, a concussion, blood gushing from a head wound, but he didn't care. He just hugged his father tight, tight, until he breathed his last.

Inoichi had gotten up then, vengeance filling his heart. He calmly stepped forward, already forming the handseals for the Shintenshin no Jutsu. He didn't know and didn't care if it didn't work. What would it matter if he couldn't overpower the fox? At least it would be easier. At least he would be reunited with his father.

However, he was suddenly struck from behind. He lost concentration, and tasted dirt. He wiped it from his mouth, glaring at his assailant.

Shikaku Nara glared right back. He too was wounded, a broken arm Inoichi judged from the angle it was bent.

"Dont", whispered the Nara. He slowly pulled out a kunai.

"Ino needs you", he finished. From the angle he was holding the blade, he showed he was willing to prevent his friend from moving.

The blonde man grimaced, in shame. He had forgotten. His baby daughter, only a few weeks old. He couldn't leave her to grow up without a father. He sighed and nodded.

"Thanks, friend", he whispered back. He slowly stood up, only then noticing the giant bulk of Choza Akimichi, bo staff in hand. He still couldn't figure out how a man of Choza's girth was simply unnoticable. It was ironic that out of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, it was Choza who had mastered the art of stealth, beyond what the other two were capable of.

The red haired giant didn't say anything, only watched carefully as two, no three men, walked out of a thin stand of trees. He thought back on what happened.

The Fox had been slaughtering ninja by the dozen, when something totally unexpected occurred. A man had simply appeared before it, about three hundred yards beyond the shinobi line. Choza identified him immediately, as an old friend.

Minato Namikaze. His name alone caused shudders of fear and disgust. Fear amongst the Rock nin, for he had slaughtered their armies during the last war. Disgust and revulsion amongst the Leaf nin, for he had turned missing nin and abandoned his village, some five years before.

Choza knew why. Five years before, the Niidaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had decided to retire. He had lived a long and fruitful life, and felt the need to appoint a successor. Weeks of discussions ended with the old man's favoured student, Orochimaru, being chosen. Immediately afterward, Minato and his sensei, Jiraiya, who had also been trained by Sarutobi, had fled. Rumours then followed of a failed coup, even of assassination. Orochimaru was seen in public wounded, decrying the treachery of his former team-mate and political rival.

Minato had appeared, holding a small bundle in his arms. Only the sharp eyes of Hiashi Hyuuga revealed the bundle to be a newborn babe. The Leaf nin waited, too late it seemed, as the former hero summoned the giant toad, Gamabunta.

The toad and fox battled for a brief moment, while the renegade cast a jutsu. Hiashi reported it to be a jutsu unknown to him, as the sequence of hand seals stretched into the hundreds, and no known jutsu needed so much.

Finally, there was a bright light, and a cold feeling swept over the nin. Choza had never felt so...low...so...weak. He knew then that Minato surely lived up to the rumours, and was using some apocalyptic technique, most likely to use the Fox's chakra to wipe out the village.

However, quiet filled the area afterward. When Choza looked back up, he noticed both the Fox and toad were gone. He looked at Hiashi, who in a shaken voice said that Minato was on the ground, dead. In his arms was the babe, with a mass of chakra unlike.

The three men walked out of the trees.

The first was an old man, dressed in black armour and an old fashioned samurai helmet, with twin bandanas fluttering in the wind. In his arms he carried the babe.

The third man was dressed in a standard Jonin uniform and had a tight grip on his Kusanagi blade, keeping it steady on the man between himself and Sarutobi.

In between them was a tall man, with a shaggy head of white hair. On his head he wore a hitai-ite, with the kanji for oil. Choza stiffened, and knew his comrades were preparing themselves. It was Jiraiya, formerly of the Densetsu no Sannin, the apprentices of the Second Hokage. Choza wondered why he was here, and why he was still alive.

Sarutobi spoke in a clear voice, one that rang with old authority that was not to be questioned.

"Leaf nin, stand down. Jiraiya is not to be harmed. I and Hokage-sama will speak with him, then he will leave".

This obviously didn't go down well with Hokage-sama, who looked as if he were one heart-beat away from slicing the traitor into ribbons.

Choza looked at Shikaku, who merely stood with his eyes closed. After a moment, he spoke in a low tone, but clearly.

"My best guess is that the Fox is sealed in that baby. Jiraiya must know something about it, hence why he is unbound. Also, most of us here are exhausted. If that traitor wanted to, he could kill us all easily before being taken down himself. No, we'll leave him alone for now. A peaceful discussion will let us all go home alive tonight". Inoichi merely spat at that, but Shikaku knew he would do nothing.

ImmortalSephiroth here,

There's my start to the story. As of the time of writing, it is GMT 18:40 on 14 December. Updates will be on a fortnightly basis, so that means you have two weeks to write the next chapter. On the 28 December, I will select Chapter 2, and then two weeks after that, Chapter 3 and so on and so forth.


	3. Chapter 2

This chapter was written by the Laughing Phoenix. I have not edited it in any way, beyond minor grammar and spelling.

Disclaimer: The Laughing Phoenix does not own Naruto, and claims no monetary profit from

this work.

The three men faced each other down across the battlefield. The two Hokages,

one current, one former, looked wary. Jiraiya looked hardened, and his eyes were tired.

"What do you want, Jiraiya? Why are you here?" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was quiet, but no less steely for that.

"Nice to see you too, sensei, Orochimaru." Jiraiya's eyes were fixed on the men in front of him, but they had been on his team long enough to recognize that half his attention was on the babe.

"Sensei asked you a question, Jiraiya." Orochimaru kept his blade up,

ready to move.

The white-haired man shrugged. "Can't a man retrieve the body of his student?"

Sarutobi snorted. "You're hiding something, Jiraiya. However, if that is truly what you came for, take the body and go."

Jiraiya bowed his head, then turned towards Minato Namikaze's fallen body.

"Wait," Orochimaru's eyes were considering. "The babe stays."

Jiraiya snarled. "Like hell."

A nasty little smile curved Orochimaru's lips. "That child holds the Kyuubi sealed within him, do you really think that we are going to let you take a weapon of that magnitude so that you might use it against us?"

"Do you really think that I would leave a child, any child, in a village whose leader conducts human experimentation?"

By the end of the sentence, Jiraiya was shouting. The Leaf nin heard him clearly, and some of them flinched. It was a poorly kept secret among the upper ranks that Orochimaru used prisoners in experiments. The stories, told in whispers, of the results

of the tests and the fates of the subjects, were enough to give the most hardened member of the Torture and Interrogation Unit nightmares.

"You haven't a choice, Jiraiya," and now Orochimaru's tone was smug, openly mocking. "The moment you touch the child, I will order my men after you. You would probably be able to kill most of them, but with sensei and I attacking as well? And defending a baby?"

Jiraiya growled, but he didn't really have a choice. As unsavory as Orochimaru's tactics were, and as incredibly irritating as his tone was, the

bastard was right. Taking the kid would almost certainly result in its death, and perhaps his own as well. He couldn't allow that to happen, not after what he'd promised Minato.

"Fine," he spat. "But if you don't want me to touch the kid, you're going to have to move him."

After a pause, Sarutobi moved towards the corpse, drawing a blade. Wary of a

surprise attack, he knelt next to the body, and swiftly scooped up the baby before retreating. Once the former Hokage stood next to Orochimaru again,

Jiraiya approached the body of his student, the man he'd come to see as a son.

Quickly and efficiently he prepared the body for transport, closing Minato's eyes, folding his hands on his chest, and drawing a sealing array on a scroll. Once the body had been sealed away, he stood, and turned to face the two Hokage and the Leaf nin.

"Know this," he said, pitching his voice to carry across the battlefield.

"Konoha only stands because Minato was a far better man than any alive, and because he loved this place so much, even after its fall from grace, that he

was willing to sacrifice everything for it. You live, because a man you branded traitor saved your sorry asses."

Jiraiya turned his gaze on the two men in front of him. "You'd better treat that boy right," he said quietly. "Treat him like any other child

of the village, and let him grow up to be his own man, rather than some weapon. If he's unhappy, I'll seek him out and offer him a place among

his own people. I failed the father tonight. I will not fail the son."

Yellow and brown eyes widened as the two men put the pieces together.

"Does the child have a name?" Sarutobi asked.

A bitter smile appeared on the white-haired man's face. "Naruto Uzumaki. His parents chose to name him in honor of his mother's people."

Had Orochimaru been anyone else, his jaw would have been on the floor. As it was, a look of surprise crossed his features.

With one last look at the baby in his sensei's arms, Jiraiya turned, and vanished into the trees.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

The room in the tower was bare, but functional. A single large wooden table ran its length, with enough chairs for ten clustered around it. The chair at

the head of the table was empty.

"We've received a missive from Jiraiya-sama," a man with black hair and red eyes told the room. "Minato Namikaze is dead."

A flurry of small noises broke out, but fell silent almost instantly when the speaker raised his hand.

"He successfully sealed the Kyuubi inside Naruto Uzumaki. The technique killed him. Jiraiya-sama managed to retrieve his body, but the Hokage," and

here his mouth twisted like the word tasted bad, "refused to let the child

go. As of tonight, Konoha has it's own jinchuuriki."

"So it's true," a soft voice interrupted. The group turned to look at this second speaker, an emaciated man with dark red hair and grey ringed eyes,

sitting inside a large wood-and-metal wheelchair. "Our leader is gone."

The dark-haired man frowned at the interruption, but picked up a sheaf of papers from the table. "I took the liberty of going through Minato's office before the meeting. I found this," he held out the papers for the

rest of the group's perusal. "It seems Minato knew he was going to die. He left instructions for us to follow once we'd heard of his passing." He looked at the man who had interrupted him. "According to this, he chose you to succeed him, Nagato."

Nagato looked startled. "He…what? I…" He took a deep breath, then spoke again. "I propose a day of mourning for Minato. We'll meet again

tomorrow, to discuss what needs to be done next. Any…any further

business?"

Despite the gravity of the situation, a couple of others at the table

chuckled. "Then, we'll meet back here tomorrow at 1100 hours." The group dispersed, light through the rain-streaked windows falling patchily on

their black cloaks, occasionally lighting up a red cloud.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Orochimaru looked at the papers on his desk, not really seeing them. One was the child's – Naruto's – medical record. Sarutobi had insisted on taking the baby to the hospital, where he was quickly given a clean bill of health. The second was a summary of the record of Kushina Uzumaki. Kushina was one of Orochimaru's greatest disappointments. She had been a talented student, tomboyish, brash, and impetuous, perhaps, but there was something in the way she fought that was truly amazing. A force to be

reckoned with on the battlefield, she built herself a reputation as something other than 'that refugee girl from Whirlpool.' To give herself a goal, she'd struck up a rivalry with his teammate's apprentice, Minato Namikaze, and worked herself to exhaustion in her attempts to outdo a genius.

Orochimaru had been fond of Kushina, in his own way. He may have been a genius himself, but he could admire drive and ambition. He'd encouraged

her, taught her, built her up from the remnant of a clan from a defunct village into a powerful member of Konoha's forces.

And then she had turned on him. Despite everything he'd done, he'd never inculcated the same loyalty in her as he had in Anko, or her teammates, the

Hyuuga twins. She'd betrayed her team, her sensei, and her village.

Yet, despite that, despite everything, Orochimaru still cared about his ex-student. With a sigh, he shoved the paper away. He was much too tired and

wanted nothing more to do than sleep – reminiscing was not going to help him.

He turned to the third paper on the desk, and briefly filled out the form

that registered one Naruto Uzumaki in the Konoha Orphanage.

WRITTEN BY THE LAUGHING PHOENIX.

Note from ImmortalSephiroth: I know, I said I'd update on the 28th December, but apart from Phoenix, no-one has submitted a second chapter. Hopefully, this will get others interested. Thanks, Phoenix, I enjoyed it.

Ja ne!


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